Review: Oranssi Pazuzu ‘Muuntautuja’
Allow me to begin proceedings by offering a full disclosure; I am in no way a black metal aficionado. There are certain bands that I love and have followed for a long time, but I cannot climb upon my frost-bitten pedestal and dissect every brutal and/or arty, nuanced, black metal release of the last two decades, although I know plenty of people who can.
That being said, Oranssi Pazuzu came on my radar almost a decade ago with their excellent release Valonielu, and adding to my curiosity with these Finish, psychedelic, black metal portal-openers, was the fact that both Matt Pike and Jeff Matz of High on Fire had publicly championed them, so with that endorsement, the proverbial deal was sealed. However, despite owning most of their discography, I haven’t fully absorbed it all as their sound is vast, layered, chaotic yet calculating, crushing and a total mind fuck from the jump.
There are simply not many musical comparisons to these guys as their sound and presentation is completely unique unto themselves. It’s not necessarily music I spin casually or while at work, as lo of their output would literally make most of my clients heads explode, so I tend to listen to them late at night when painting or drawing, as their sound, for me, lends itself to experiencing them under those circumstances.
Here, we have Oranssi Pazuzu’s latest release, Muuntautuja and it follows the ongoing aural trajectory of the band that they’ve been on since their 2009 debut Muukalainen puhuu. The band proffer, what I’d argue are more musical movements, or passages, than what I’d describe as traditional rock ‘songs’ that bands of this ilk tend to do, and this is consistent with most of their output.
Muuntautuja unfurls with the unnerving, rhythmic clanking of Bioalkemisti which features a driving, quasi-industrial, bass-heavy beat along with all sorts of dark, swirling ambience and jarring guitar work, to say nothing of the otherworldly, horrifying vocals of Jun-His and Evill. The title track, Muuntautuja, is like a mid-tempo, creepy-crawling, cosmic journey through the darkest corners of space, featuring all sorts of heaving, swirling sounds, alien bleeping and totally unsettling crescendos, climaxing with some truly distorted, frightening vocals.
the band take the listener through the circles of their very own psychedelic, spaced-out, hell…
Voitelu returns to more of an uptempo rhythmic attack but is of course totally drenched in distortion, fuzz, muck, and all sorts of thrusting, psychedelic guitar histrionics that are made all the more disturbing with the addition of some eerie, piano twinkles. Hautatuuli delivers an almost trip-hop beat that runs parallel with an ear-worm bass line and more of Oranssi Pazuzu’s unnerving effects, including the vocals which are now a whispered chant adding a macabre, ghostly feeling to this musical movement as the band take the listener through the circles of their very own psychedelic, spaced-out, hell.
The album begins its second half decent into the dark dimension by building Valotus from a quiet, tripped out, evil effects mood into a heavy, rumbling, cosmic black metal monster that is as dark and fucked up as anything I’ve heard all year, and I mean that as a complement. Oranssi Pazuzu, as they did previously with Voitelu, shower their chaos with piano twinkles that don’t necessarily ‘add melody’, but instead give the track an even more sinister feeling, if that’s even possible.
The piano gets more work during the opening of Ikikäärme which is a nine-plus minute mind fuck of the highest order. The track is jammed to the teeth with weird, evil noises and scrapings, plenty of unnerving build and vibes, wicked, terrifying vocal lurches and crushing, epic breakdowns, that the listener can practically feel. Muuntautuja reaches its conclusion with the ominous vibes of Vierivä usva wherein the band’s eerie synths and effects serve as the perfect closer to this harrowing, sonic experience.
Oranssi Pazuzu’s albums, for this reviewer, almost feel like unsettling film scores set to the most horrifying parts of cosmic existence. Their records play out like dark, psychedelic sonic movements, every one of them is a hair-raising listen and Muuntautuja, while showing the band’s continued evolution, follows suit.
I listened to this album many times in preparation for this review, and I heard something new with every spin, in fact, I could play this daily for the rest of the year and continue to discover new sounds and moods. Oranssi Pazuzu are certainly one of the cooler, more unique bands in underground metal, and they’ve delivered another step in their continued journey through their own, personal black cosmos. Highly recommended, but not for the faint of heart.
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: Martin Williams
